IN SESSION
Text Matt Bochenski
A round-up of the top films and tunes heading your way this month
The year’s first masterpiece arrives in the form of David Fincher’s gripping police procedural, which documents the travails of four men whose lives are cruelly misshapen by a swathe of killings in and about the San Francisco area during the late 60s by a killer who went by the name of ‘Zodiac’.
To say that Fincher has curtailed his customary visual histrionics is an understatement: apart from a stunning stop-motion montage, Zodiac plays hard-and-fast with the non-flashytenets of New Hollywood, combining the technical 
rigour of All The President’s Men with the through-the-looking-glass inquisitiveness of JFK.
It’s a film in which fact, conjecture and speculation fly past your eyes at a dizzying rate, with an atmosphere that is half mystery and half paranoia.
Laying the mechanics of historical revisionism bare, not only do facts become distorted, misread and miss-communicated, but they prove that we’re only ever a step away from chasing our own tail.
|
|
Travis
The Boy With No Name
Travis didn’t really fit in with the macho Brit pop vibe of their early era. They were a bit too smart, or maybe just a bit too square.
But now their time has come. The Boy With No Name, so-called for lead singer Fran Healey’s son, is a lilting, uplifting collection of tracks that takes the band’s signature catchy hooks and infuses them with sparky pop finesse.
|
|
|
Highlights include the Motown soul of ‘Selfish Jean’ and the floaty guitars of ‘One Night’. Listen out for Ben Stiller playing cowbells.
Seriously!
|
|
Björk Volta
|
Brash, beautiful and totally bonkers – Bjork is back with her new album, Volta. And even for the queen bee of leftfield beats, this may be her most eclectic record to date. |
|
|
Collaborators include hip-hop hero Timbaland and Mercury-winning weirdo Anthony Hegarty, as well as Malian kora player Toumani Diabate, and experimental Congolese band Konono No. 1. The result is a propulsive jaunt through a twisting musical landscape that’s as ethereal, concussive and starkly brilliant as anything the Icelandic maiden has ever made. |
In the news
Box Office Behemoths
There’s one word on everybody’s lips this month: Spiderman. The web-slinging superhero returns for his third adventure, and although the film has been kept strictly under wraps, the internet has been abuzz with speculation for months about everything from the colour of Spidey’s suit, to the identities of his new arch-enemies. One thing’s for sure, after the last film grossed a whopping €600 million worldwide, the ringing of cash registers is sure to be deafening.
 |
The second Pirates of the Caribbean film was so huge (the third highest grossing film ever!), you’d have to go to the ends of the earth to find someone who hasn’t seen it. Perhaps that’s why the third and final movie, out in cinemas at the end of the month, is called Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Watch out for wrinkly rocker Keith Richards, the inspiration for Jonny Depp’s pirate performance, in a cameo as Jack’s dad. |
Images Rex Features, Empics
No comments yet.
